Cardiff Airport on course for lowest passenger figures for 15 years

Cardiff Airport is on course to record its lowest annual passenger numbers in 15 years, new figures show.

Cardiff Airport is on course to record its lowest annual passenger numbers in 15 years, new figures show.

Travel experts and airport officials say they now expect to see a slow rise in fortunes for the airport, which, they said, had hit rock bottom after the loss of low-cost airline bmibaby 18 months ago.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) stats show just over 98,000 passengers flew from Cardiff in October, a figure 12% lower than that of October 2011.

Figures also show that passenger numbers for the past 12 months (October to October) are down by 19% on the previous year.

Passenger numbers in 2011 totalled 1.2 million, down from an all-time high of more than two million in 2007.

Passenger numbers for 2012 are likely to be lower than this and the lowest since 1997.

In the last 12-month period (October to October), 1.01 million passengers have used the airport.

Air travel expert Martin Evans, a visiting fellow at the University of Glamorgan Business School, said: “Cardiff Airport is still very much feeling the aftermath of bmibaby’s exit, an airline which offered low cost flights and carried large passenger numbers.

“However, I expect passenger number figures to have reached their base in October and envisage that we will now see those numbers slowly moving upwards.

“Airports rely on attracting new airlines to boost their passenger numbers and Cardiff certainly has the capacity to do that.

“Their current Spanish partner, Vueling, among others have already announced an extended number of flights for next year and that should be reflected in future figures.

“I don’t expect things to get any worse.”

Cardiff’s fortunes have dipped considerably since 2007 when the airport reached an annual two million passenger number target for the first and only time in its history.

At the time government figures predicted that by 2030 more than eight million passengers would use the airport.

Yet numbers have in fact declined every year since.

In April 2011 low-cost airline bmibaby announced it was pulling out of Cardiff after nine years at the airport serving 10 destinations – including Alicante, Geneva and Palma.

Meanwhile, Cardiff’s main rival, Bristol Airport, has seen a 2.4% increase in passengers so far this year.

Steve Hodgetts, commercial director at Cardiff Airport, said there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“The published CAA statistics for October 2012 will show the trend established for the whole year so far and reflects the loss of the bmibaby operation at the end of 2011,” he said.

“The cumulative impact of the loss has shown throughout this year and would not be expected to change now.

“In this, Cardiff is not alone with East Midlands, Doncaster, Humberside, Prestwick and Liverpool all showing similar declines, attributable to loss of airlines, aircraft and routes.

“From November 2012 month on month comparisons will show that November 2012 has seen passenger growth over November 2011.”

This summer First Minister Carwyn Jones revealed plans to re-brand the airport in a bid to attract more passengers.

Following the launch of the Cardiff Airport Task Force, the First Minister announced a new direct route to Malaga from next summer by Spanish airline Vueling.

In October a new air route between Wales and Germany was also announced.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “It’s disappointing that less passengers used Cardiff Airport in October than during the same month last year.

“The Welsh Government is committed to helping Cardiff Airport to realise its true potential as a modern, competitive, thriving and commercially successful airport.

“This is why the First Minister has established a Task Force to look at how we can help the airport to best maximise that potential.”

This week the airport also announced that Cardiff passengers will be able to reach more worldwide destinations via Amsterdam after KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced an extension of its network in Holland which will provide connecting flights to Japan.

Mr Hodgetts said: “We are expecting that the work of the First Minster’s task force, the 2013 programme by Vueling, our successful charter programme particularly with Thomson and Thomas Cook and the continued connectivity offered by KLM, Flybe and Aer Arann will lead to the return of year on year growth at Cardiff Airport.”

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